Bon Fire: Martha Stewart Style!

Tonight my Tuesday community group is having a BBQ/Bon Fire to wrap up the year. It feel like it is the official start of Summer! Bon Fires and BBQ's are some of my favorite things about Summer.  Especially on the beach. If I can't be camping in my beloved Rocky Mountains, at least I have the ocean, and a fire on the beach is just as good as one in the mountains. I am bringing s'mores tonight and I decided to get all domestic (like that never happens) and make homemade s'mores stuff. I made graham crackers and marshmallows and they turned out great! Also, much easier than expected. I actually made them before church on Sunday, (being productive is one of the silver linings to waking up at 6:00 a.m. on my days off!)

I'll start with the graham crackers. Here is the recipe:

Graham Crackers
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup milk

Sift together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Stir in the sifted ingredients alternating with the milk and vanilla. Cover dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the chilled dough in half. On a well floured surface, roll each half of the dough out until about ⅛ inch thick. Cut dough into 4" squares by using a pizza cutter. Place squares onto ungreased cookie sheets. Use a toothpick to make several small holes in each cracker. For a cinnamon flavored crackers, sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture before baking.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Makes about 30-32 4" graham cracker squares (15-16 s'mores)

I had the bright idea of covering the bottoms of each cracker in melted chocolate so that they were already "s'more ready". I generally find a Hershey's candy bar to be too thick for a good s'more, it's hard to get it all nice and melty. Anyway, we will see how this works.

Now, here are the marshmallows:

Homemade Marshmallows
shortening to grease pan
1 cup cold water, divided
3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Prepare pan: Coat a 9“x9” baking pan with shortening. Mix the cornstarch and powdered sugar and coat the greased pan thoroughly. Set aside starch/sugar mixture for later use.
Pour 1/2 cup cold water into bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand until gelatin softens and absorbs water, about 15 minutes.
Combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup cold water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Attach candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat and bring syrup to boil. Boil, without stirring, until syrup reaches 240°F, about 8 minutes.

With mixer running at low speed, slowly pour hot syrup into gelatin mixture in thin stream down side of bowl. Gradually increase speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick and stiff, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to blend, about 30 seconds longer.
Starts off like this:

and turns into this:

Scrape marshmallow mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top with wet spatula. Coat with more starch/sugar mixture. Let stand uncovered at room temperature until firm, about 4 hours.

Loosen marshmallow from the sides and bottom of the pan with a spatula. Turn marshmallow slab out onto a cutting board dusted with starch/sugar mixture. Cut marshmallows into squares with a pizza cutter or other shapes (using cookie cutters). Toss each in remaining starch/sugar mixture to coat. Transfer marshmallows to rack, shaking off excess mixture. One 9"x9" pan yields about 25 marshmallows.

Marshmallows can be layered between sheets of parchment and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.

These ended up being a little larger than traditional marshmallows (and they are square, obviously) but I think that is kind of perfect for s'mores. I am excited to see how everything tastes. It they are better than the store bought variety then they are definitely worth it because it was not much effort at all.